Toward bioinspired nanostructures for selective vapor sensing: diverse vapor-induced spectral responses within iridescent scales of Morpho butterflies

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe iridescent colors of Morpho butterflies have captured scientific intrigue for over a century. However, only recently photonic structures of the wing scales of Morpho butterflies have inspired new ideas in the diverse areas of technology including sensing. In this study, we performed theoretical and experimental evaluation of vapor-induced reflectance changes of the Morpho scales. These experiments provided additional details of the origin and the magnitude of vapor response selectivity in these natural photonic nanostructures and facilitated our design and fabrication of highly selective biomimetic photonic nanostructures.